Never in my mind i have a thought to visit Seoul or South Korea more than once in a year. No matter how much i love travelling, visiting the same place twice or three times would be a luxury. However, my wildest dream came true! After my trip to South Korea last year in March, i always had this urge to come back there. After months of browsing and comparing flight tickets, i and few girlfriends bought tickets to enjoy an early spring in Seoul. I remember clearly it was in September 2014. We (6 of us) plan to visit Seoul in late March 2015. Then, the universe conspired to send me back to this one place i cherish. 2014 was not even over yet, Alhamdulilah. It was in November, I got to go back to Seoul and Busan this time. Hoorayyyy!!!

My Busan trip will be told in a separate post, but i think i owe a post about some places in Seoul that i haven’t had a chance to tell in my previous posts. My second visit to Seoul was with my office colleagues, and my third was with two close friends. I was said to have a better understanding of Seoul since they thought i’m a Hallyu fans and i was in Seoul before. Well, the latter is spot on, but to have a better understanding of Seoul, i’m not really sure on that one :)) However, i took my responsibility proudly and happily. I made itineraries for both trip, set up the budget, made reservations for guesthouse, trains, and even the airport transfer. I have to say, i did a quite good job.

Since the participants of each trip were all Seoul-newbies, I got to visit exact same places in both trip. Here are some : Gyeongbokgung, Namsan Tower, Myeongdong, and Dongdaemun, Insadong, Hongdae, Itaewon, and Jamsil area. Some are already told in previous posts, now let me tell you about some other places :

NAMSAN TOWER

This is a tourist magnet, especially after a huge fame of My Love From The Star, a Korean Drama airing a year ago. Namsan tower was more than a shooting place of the drama, it was part of the story. Tourists and fans of the drama come here to re-enact the sweetness of the scenes. There is an area in Namsan Tower where we can put padlock with our name and the loved one’s written on it. Namsan Tower screams out love and romance with pink glitters all over. The Tower stands tall on the Namsan Hill, so if we climb up the highest level of the Tower, we pretty much can see the whole Seoul. It was breathtaking at night.

Namsan Tower can be reached by various means of transport. Please check this out. I myself went there by getting to Myeongdong first, and walked a bit to the cable car station, then took the cable car to Namsan Tower. it was a nice view while walking up and taking the cable car ride.

The tree of padlocks!

High on love!

GYEONGBOK-GUNG

One of the thing i love about Seoul is how in the massive concrete jungle, we still can find traditional buildings and temples. There are several palaces and temples located in Seoul. The biggest and the grandest of all is definetely Gyeongbok-Gung. It’s a must-visit and also easy to reach since it’s located right in the heart of Seoul. You can read more details about the royal palace right here and here to find out how to get there. I have been here three times, and still didn’t cover the whole palace because it’s so vast and might take half day just to go thru every corners of it. There are also some cool places to visit around the palace, such as Korean History Museum, Gwanghamun Square, and Children Museum.

Palace Guard. What’s with the sad face all the time, oppa? 😉

ITAEWON

Itaewon is an area in Seoul where many foreigners and expatriates choose to reside. That explains the amount of foreign restaurants and bars in this area. Itaewon made it to the itinerary because there was a recommended Halal Korean Restaurant and the biggest mosque in Seoul happens to be located in Itaewon. During my visit last year, we went twice to Itaewon, once was for friday pray and the second one was a return visit to the delish kebab restaurant there.

HONGDAE

I finally visited Hongdae on my third trip to Seoul. I and my girlfriends even chose to stay in the neighborhood during our trip last March. Hongdae is where Hongik University, one of the best schools in South Korea, located. No wonder, this area is so alive and vibrant. Restaurans, Coffee shops, bars and cute shops selling cute stuff are what we can find here. Street musicians perform on weekend nights. Some of the best korean delicacies i ate on the trips, i found them in Hongdae. I’d be back!

Chicken galbi with cheese, how i miss you!

My travelling buddies, both preggers!

A happy Seoul-addict 🙂

I just gotta split the post into two parts because writing inspirations don’t come easy, but writing about Seoul never bore me. There will be more places to be revisited in the next post, ’till then..annyeong!

Soooo..this is new. I have never written a review before, let alone on a Korean Drama. Howeverrrr..this is an exception. I feel that my withdrawal on this one is so hard to do. I’ve been rewatching it for the umpteenth time now. It’s crazy!

Healer was broadcasted almost 4 months ago and finished airing in February. I downloaded it after it aired for five episodes but i kept them on my phone for almost 2 months.

When i started watching it, i was like, what? How come i didn’t watch it right away? I got hooked instantly.

Healer is a code name for a night-errand man who gets paid for doing anything that doesn’t include killing. He claims to be the best in his job and fully supported by an ahjumma who specializes in hacking all wired computers and cameras. Healer is played by forever-dashing Ji Chan Wook 😍
The leading lady is Chae Young Shin,played by Park Min Young. Her character is an online tabloid reporter who thinks she’s got it but she’s actually pretty clueless 😁
The other main lead is Yoo Ji Tae as Kim Moon Ho, a star reporter who holds a dark secret and is related to both Healer and Young Shin.

Healer is action-packed drama, with a super sweet romance, and a warmhearted bromance. I’d say that this is an entertainment at its best. I get blown away by how the writer creates characters with layers, we get to watch them revealed in each episodes. Every episode just gets better and not dragged away.

The three main leads also do one heck of a job here. I have not seen any drama or movie by Yoo Ji Tae, but i’m a fan now. No wonder he gets so many praises in his previous projects. Ms. Park is also a brilliant actress, i can never imagine another actress as Chae Young Shin other than her. About Ji Chang Wook, well..let’s just say my phone is full of his pics by now 😅🙈

Healer will stand firm on my top five Kdrama lists. It’s so damn good.
Now, anyone can heal the withdrawal syndrome?

What’s so special about this place anyway? what makes people tourists flock there?

Aside from the winter sonata thingy..well..

Entrance gate to the ferry

The super legendary bench!

Happy like a kid on her birthday party..

Nami Island, leaving winter behind..

Teddy’s is surely famous around here..

There’s something warm about this place, although that day was particularly cold. Maybe it was me, happiness sorta brings warmth, right?

We arrived at lunch time. The subway ride took almost 2 hours, and we had to take a cab to the get to the ferry. There are actually few alternatives to get to Nami Island, please check this out. What to do in Nami? We just walked and walked, enjoyed the cool air, took (tons of) pictures, and stopped by for a glass of hot green tea latte. A good day indeed.

’till we meet again, Namiseom!

Around 4 pm, we left Namiseom by Ferry, took another cab to the subway station and headed back to Seoul.

Next on the itinerary were Namdaemun Market and Myeongdong. Woohoo..my wallet was about to cry.

Buy now, regret some other time!

Namdaemun, from fur coat to leather boots.

Welcome to Myeongdong, the place of everything hip and shiny

One thing about Myeongdong, the area is basically a mother ship of all Korean branded cosmetics, so treat yourself while you’re there. The cosmetics’ original price were pretty much cheaper than in Jakarta, for instance.

My interest (more like an obsession, actually 😅) in many things Korean has made me dream of really visiting South Korea. So, one day I asked le hubby if he’d go with me to Seoul. It was not on the first attempt of asking that he said yes. Long story short,we finally booked our flight on early March. Why March? Because I didn’t want to go in Winter and we got a bargain price for regular carrier, Malaysia Airlines.

The process of applying for Visa was hassle-free, within a few weeks I got the hotel and an ambitious itinerary ready. We were going to stay for 4 days in Seoul and 1 day in Jeju-do.

2 days before the D-day, MH370 tragedy happened. We freaked out a lil bit, not because we were afraid that something similar might happen again, but we’re worried our flight got cancelled. Thankfully, everything went okay. We took off from Jakarta on Monday evening and arrived in Incheon Int’l Airport on Tuesday Morning (we stopped by in KLIA for 2 hrs). Annyeong,Seoul!

I almost could not believe that I finally stepped my feet on Korean soil. I was so ecstatic and nervous..norak yaaa :))))

We took the airport bus to our hotel, GS hotel in Jongno district. We decided to stay at this hotel after reading some great reviews on Trip Advisor. It took 1 hour from the airport to Jongno District in Seoul. We took off the bus and walked a bit to get to the GS hotel.

The hotel was small and hidden in an alley, but the room was nice and clean. It had a bathroom filled with complete amenities, even face cream and hair mask! We were even allowed to check in very early that day. Value for money, indeed.

That day we planned to go to Gwanghamun Square, Gyeongbokgung Palace, and just roam around Bukchon Village, or if possible visit another palace, Changdeokgung.

It was a cold afternoon, spring had not really sprung and winter’s coolness still lingered. We walked from the hotel to Gwanghamun square instead of taking subway. I was so happy to breath in Seoul’s air. Call me weird, but even the air tasted different. The trees were leaveless, but they didn’t look unpretty at all. Ah, I was like a girl in love.

We didn’t get to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace (closed on Tuesday) & Bukchon Village that day, we didn’t even go to any traditional village for the whole trip. So sad.

Anyeong, Seoul!

Gyeongbokgung. Closed on tuesday. Research much, ha?

Could you tell how happy I was?

Oh so grand.

Strolling down Seoul’s street

The Secret Garden at Changdeokgung. Misteriously pretty.

Idunnothename..but it was on the way to Dongdaemun.

Dongdaemun, ready to serve you ’till dawn!

Since Gyeongbokgung was closed that day, we ended up strolling down the city streets to Changdeokgung. This is also one of many palaces situated in Seoul. We planned to catch to English-guided tour of the famous secret garden. Secret Garden is part of Changdeokgung, a very large park with ponds and smaller palaces inside.

We spent the entire afternoon in the palace and had lunch in a small coffee shop near Changdeokgung. One thing I love about Seoul is the coffee shop. It has lots of coffee shops, and cute interiors just add the loveliness of those places.

At night, we went to Doota in Dongdaemun, just for the sake of curiosity. Doota is a fashion district in Dongdaemun, open for almost 24 hours. Talking about passion for Korean fashion, you’ll be amazed here. We just had dinner at Coffee Bean and went back to hotel. Two sleepy heads just could not take it anymore. :))